The invention relates to a method of making strips of textile material, especially for making strips of coherent labels for the application to garments or the like.
Published German patent application No. 21 00 835 discloses a method of making coherent panels by subdividing a web of textile material into a plurality of strips. The subdividing step involves the application of heat to meltable or fusible filaments of the web. Such filaments are often used in recent types of fabrics. In order to prevent fraying of edges of the thus obtained strips, the severing instrumentalities include or constitute heated wires which sever the web by melting its material between the strips and which simultaneously provide the edges of the thus obtained discrete strips with fused beads. The beads are formed in the web making machine ahead of the strip withdrawing unit because the withdrawing unit is apt to damage the edges which are devoid of fused beads.
A drawback of the conventional method is that the making of fused beads unduly hardens and roughens the edges of the strips. In fact, certain fused beads are likely to develop a pronounced toothed profile. This is uncomfortable to the wearer of a garment which is provided with a label forming part of a subdivided strip with fused beads. The beads are likely to damage the garments and/or to bruise the adjacent portions of the skin. All in all, the provision of fused beads along the edges of strips which are to be subdivided into discrete labels is not an ideal solution, not only as concerns the comfort to the wearer of such labels but also as concerns the appearance of the strips and/or labels.